Today’s Scripture Reading (January 19, 2018): Galatians 3
I am convinced that true objectivity is impossible. We all see the world through
colored glasses of our own design. Much
of what we have been taught as children affects how we look
at the events around us. As does
the choices that we have made through life. We can try to remove these glasses,
try to get down to the real thing that we are attempting to perceive, but
remnants of them will always remain. When a
person argues that “your logic doesn’t work here,” what they are telling you is
quite possible, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that either logic is correct.
Both sides are looking through glasses of their own creation. Playing
the game of objectivity means always trying to see in the words of your critics
where it is that you may be deceived. And
through the game, we might get closer to
objective truth, but we will never truly
arrive at our goal.
Paul tries to paint a word picture for the
Galatians as he describes their deception. And he starts with a very strong accusation – You foolish
Galatians. I love the way that J. B. Phillips translates this verse. “O
you dear idiots of Galatia, who saw Jesus Christ the crucified so plainly, who
has been casting a spell over you?” Somehow in using the words “dear idiots”
Phillips arrives at the strength of the condemnation combined with the love for
the people of Galatia that was in Paul’s heart. The problem was that the
Galatians understood the Gospel message, they knew that Jesus had died on a
cross for their sins, and yet they refused to see that their salvation no
longer depended on their works, but rather on the action that Jesus had undertaken for them. According to Paul, it was
as if someone had cast an evil eye on them, prohibiting them from understanding.
The real problem was that everything that they had been taught contradicted what it was that their
eyes saw and their hearts understood. And so they translated what it was that
they saw to match what it was that they had been
taught. We do it all the time. If we agree with someone, then they make
sense. If we disagree, then everything they say and do is garbage. Is
everything that they say and do garbage?
Not likely, but our translation of the world allows us to arrive at that
conclusion.
Paul is hoping that “You foolish Galatians” or “you dear idiots of
Galatia” will have enough shock value to get the Galatians to take a second
look at what it is that has been clearly
portrayed to them in Jesus. In that second glance, he hopes they will
understand all that Jesus has done their behalf, and leave behind the teaching
that they had received which insists that they could earn their salvation by
doing right things.
Whether we want to admit it or not, we are often caught in the
same trap as the Galatians; minimizing what it is that Jesus has done on our
behalf and maximizing our own good works.
And when that happens, we have been deceived and have become the “dear idiots”
that need an adjustment in how we view our world. We need to be shocked out of
our self-reliance and into an understanding of how much Jesus has done for us.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Galatians 4
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